A traveler, with his mouth covered with a scarf of a purple and white colour scheme and darkish hair was heading in the direction of a hotel with a flyer in his hands
"J and J's grotto" he reads off the flyer and looks up, seeing a giant building with these exact things labelled on it, but the building looked decrepit and dead, he even could see cobwebs spreading through the entirety of the building but with all of this in mind, he still entered it as he needed the money
"Hello? Anyone here?" He asked, his voice echoing from the empty corridors but he noticed an old man smoking a cigar at the reception desk so he decided to walk over to him
"Hello, how can I help you in J and J's grotto?" The old man asked, but the traveler responded
"I'm actually looking to get hired! I saw the flyer and it seems you need employment"
"You sure?" The old man asked, his tone not changing even for a second
"Y-yes, I'm sure" the traveler said, but now with a little stutter
The old man gave a giant sigh before grabbing a lantern and saying "then follow me kid"
He said as went to the back room and opened the door to a basement like area and started going down the stairs, so the traveler followed him
At first he questioned why the old man would need a lantern but walking down a giant pile of stairs down without a light source would be a nightmare, but eventually they made it to a dimly lit room with a table, a piece of paper, a pen and two chairs
"Take a seat, son" the old man said as he placed the lantern on the floor, sits down on a chair and picks up the pen and paper and so the traveler also sits down
"I'll ask you a couple question to see if your qualified for the job, alright?" He asked at which the traveler responded "yeah, that's why I'm here... to get this job" he said with an awkward smile, at which the old man just looked down on the paper and asked
"Name, surname and age?" At which the traveler replied
"Eron Staydead, and I'm 17"
"Eron huh? Quite strange name" the old man said while writing something on the paper
"Oh that's because my parents-" Eron was about to say he immediately got cut off by the old man
"I don't want details, I want to make this quick, understand me?"
"Yes sir" Eron responded now with a bit of sweat running down his face
"Why do you want to work here?"
"My parents are massively in debt and I want to help them"
"Oh, the selfless type, you'll come in handy"
This stuns Eron a bit but he somehow managers to remain calm and ready for next question
"This will be the final question, are you ready?"
"Y-yes, I'm very ready"
"Are you able to fight? In close quarters"
"Excuse me? Why would I need to fight in a hotel"
Eron asks confused as he couldn't think of a reason on would he need to fight
"If the next words out of your mouth aren't yes or no, I'm denying you working here immediately" the old man says as he takes another smoke
Eron thinks for a bit, wondering if this is the thing he seeks, and he finally responds
"Yes, my parents work in the military and trained me martial arts"
"Good, welcome aboard, call me Joseph or sir, or whatever you youngsters call us nowadays" the old man says as his hand reaches to Eron's
"T-thank you, I really needed this" Eron says with a exited expression as Joseph looks at him and says
"Just two more things" he says as Eron follows up with "and what are they?"
"You'll be sleeping at the hotel, as it will be the most effective way for you to work"
"Oh, thank you so much! It took me few hours to get here"
"That's nothing kid, and the other thing, is your going to have two coworkers working with you"
The second thing surprised Eron as the building looked so run down he thought he was going to be the only person around
"And who are they?" Eron asked riddled with questions as Joseph explains
"Jayz and jasmine, these two will be your coworkers"
"And could you tell me a bit about them?" Eron asked even more curious then before
"Fine.... Jayz or jay, which is his real name but he says to call him Jayz or he'll "slash our lungs out" and I honestly think he's so psychotic he might not be kidding"
"That's a bit rude, I'm sure he isn't that bad"
"That was not be insulting him, he got hired after he left a psych ward because he wanted slash someone with his real katanas, but he's good at sweeping the floor"
"Oh... and what about jasmine?"
"She's tall, blonde and short tempered, I wouldn't recommend trying to try to hit on her, as the last guy that tired was hospitalised for multiple months"
"Understood.... Soooo when can I start work?" Eron asked impatiently
"Come with me" Joseph said as he finally got up from his chair, picked up the lantern and started heading pack up with Eron
"See the mop there? Take it and start mopping the building, after your done, you can rest"
"Sure!" Eron said as quickly grabbed the mop and got to work
He mopped and mopped not stop, and surprisingly he didn't see any of his coworkers the entire day, which he found strange but he continued on
After few hours of work he was finally done, he notified Joseph and got comfortable in his room, scrolling through his phone and it was seeming like everything was finally working out for him
"Now, this! Is how I can live! This is great! And now it's time for my rest" he said as he laid on his bed and closed his eyes.
And as he woke up, he suddenly was tied to a chair, his mouth closed shut with duck tape and a tall, lanky figure in a suit, with red vines growing onto him and with teeth sharper then steel, his face looking like a strange mix of a lovecraftian horror and a human, and his hand reached and sharply removed the duck tape off of Eron's mouth
"W-What the hell are you? Where am I" at which the monster only laughed and said
"Oh oh the fool, Joseph brought me another snack on the table, I have to sincerely thank him one day, oh and where are my manners, my name is Mantus the leader of the crimson night cult, nice to meet you" he said with a grin filling his face
"W-what are you doing?" Eron still confused, it was like staring a demon into its eyes
"It's simple child, I collect sacrifices to revive our great lord and bringer of liberty! Apollyon!" He says as he point at a giant red egg behind him, red vines growing from it
„Are you ready to use the sacrificial dagger Lord Mantus?" A pale woman, with 4 sharp, mantis like like hands and 4 eyes behind him asked
„Yes, my dear, if you of course could" Mantus coldly replies still looking at Eron with his sick grin
And as the woman was about to give Mantus the dagger, the giant steel door from behind him bursted open, and in it was Joseph smoking a cigar with two other people behind him
A brown haired, dual katana wielding man, looking in his 20's and a tall, beautiful and jacked up woman with blonde hair
"Really Mantus? And i thought you couldn't get any lower, he's a kid for fuck sakes" Joseph said angrily like his nerves would pop right there and there
"Ohhh Joseph! I need to thank you for giving me such a prime specimen for the sacrifice! But you know that even age won't stop me from reviving my great Lord" Mantus grinned as Joseph's only response was
"Yeah... let's see if a bullet can change that!" He says as he whips out his revolver from his pants and shoots it, cleanly hitting Mantus in the head
"Go! Go! Go!" Joseph shouted as he with jayz and jasmine started running towards the tied Eron
"Lord Mantus!" The pale woman screamed as fell onto the floor with Mantus, she was in so much distress she didn't notice Joseph sliding besides her and getting next to Eron and cutting the rope that was tied him to the chair
"Come on! Run!" Joseph screamed as Eron looked, as red zombie like creatures were slashed down by Jayz, and their brains destroyed from a single punch from jasmine he started running towards the exit
"Shit, shit, shit" Eron mumbled to himself as he was running, he didn't believe that what he thought was a simple hotel job turned into fighting against a cult
But then Mantus appeared in front of him, his bullet wound on his face seemingly gone
"And where do you think you're g-" Mantus said with a grin but before he could finish Eron gave him the the meanest right hook he could
Mantus gagged as Eron continued his onslaught of punches, until a black tentacle from behind Mantus suddenly grabbed his fist
Mantus grinned with his injured face as he said "well... now let me... have my fun" he said as the tentacle started draining the blood from Eron's hand
"F-fuck..." Eron said, he was powerless to move as blood was draining from his hand, as Mantus just grinned as he was getting healed by Eron's blood
But suddenly a katan flew slashing through the black tentacle
As both Mantus and Eron are surprised as Jayz jumps in, and slashes Mantus's stomach and he swings his other katan as hard as he can and scream
"DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT" Jayz screamed as he slashed Mantus's head off and yelled to Eron
"come on Newbie! Get out of here" Jayz yelled as he took got his katana from the wall, and started running towards the exit
Eron started as well but all of the stress from everything and his lack of energy from lack of blood slowed him down tremendously but then suddenly he felt getting picked up from a masculine figure... it was jasmine
"Hey newbie... let's get out of here shake we?" She said and she started running like she was going at Mach 10
Eron didn't even say a thing, he was too tired to so he just let himself get carried by her
She finally got to the exit with Jayz and Joseph running through the empty hallways before reaching the outside world
It felt like forever since Eron seen it
After 15 minutes of walking they finally got back into the hotel
Jasmine finally placed Eron in the giant couch they had for guests and asked
"And... how's the new job newbie?" She asked gasping for air
"It's... accelerating... definitely" Eron still panting with the stress of what just happened
"Well get used to it newbie! I'm Jayz" the guy behind jasmine said with a smirk
"H-hey...nice to meet ya, Jayz..." Eron replied
"But I think I'll head to bed for today..." he said as he got up, his bones cracking slightly
"Hey... before you go" Joseph said from the sidelines
"You aren't bad, kid" which made Eron smile and get back to his room, and finally laid on his bed, alone
"Finally, some peace... this job is dangerous but I have to help my parent... no natter what"
He finished off as his eyes closed ready to fall into deep sleep, but he didn't know yet that it wasn't done dealing with troubles just yet this terrible night.... Was not something he would love to see.